Good guys: David and David

The Virginia Bar Association held its summer meeting at The Homestead (sorry, “the Omni Homestead Resort” – that moniker is going to take a long time to catch on, if ever) last month.

The VBA honored two lawyers – both named David, both from Richmond – with well-earned awards.

The group’s Walker Award of Merit recognizes leadership within the organized bar and within the VBA in particular.

It is named for two VBA past presidents – John L. Walker Sr. and John L. Walker Jr. and yes, John L. Walker III is president-elect of the association. He will become president at the VBA winter meeting next January.

The first David honored: David Landin.

Landin served as VBA president in 1999, and more recently he has chaired the VBA’s Committee on Special Issues on National and State Importance.

The Special Issues committee was founded by former Gov. Gerald Baliles, who chaired it before handing the reins to Landin. The committee, comprised of lawyers and professionals in fields such as education, health care, publishing and in Fortune 500 companies, operates as the association’s “think tank.” It looks for trends of emerging significance to society and organizes educational sessions for the VBA winter and summer meetings. (Disclosure: I am a member of this committee).

Landin served as president of the Virginia Association of Defense Attorneys back in the early 1990s and he was president of the Virginia Law Foundation.

As VBA President Tom Bagby said at The Homestead, “If we had sought out the perfect candidate to epitomize the traits and characteristics that we seek to recognize by the Walker Award, we simply couldn’t have found anyone more suited for this award than David.”

Hear, hear.

The second David honored: David Harless.

Harless just completed his term as president of the Virginia State Bar in June, now holding the coveted title of immediate past president.

And it may be a first to see a VSB president lauded at a VBA meeting, the VBA passed a “Resolution of Appreciation,” citing Harless for his service to the VSB and the bar at large.

Bagby, in his remarks, noted Harless’ work with all statewide bars – the VSB, the VBA, the VADA, the Virginia Trial Lawyers Association, the Virginia Women Attorneys Association, the Old Dominion Bar Association, the American Pacific American Bar Association of Virginia and the Hispanic Bar Association.

The resolution states that during his term, “Mr. Harless devoted special attention to the importance of cooperation between and among all statewide and local bar associations, and through his extraordinary leadership, he indeed fostered meaningful and lasting improvements in the mutual respect and communication among all bar associations in the Commonwealth of Virginia.”